Is Raising the Index Finger in the Tashahhud a Sunna for Women Too?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

Is raising the index finger in the tashahhud incumbent upon a woman the way it is incumbent upon a man?

Answer

In the Hanafi school, raising the index finger in the sitting (tashahhud) is a sunna for a woman exactly as it is for a man, and it is incumbent on neither.

Since you asked whether it is incumbent, the school counts the pointing (al-ishara) among the sunnas of the prayer [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah 1:101]. Imam Tahtawi (Allah have mercy on him) reports that the Hanafi transmissions agree on it, so it is a confirmed sunna [Tahtawi, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah 1:269]. Nothing in that ruling is restricted to men.

Our texts mark a woman’s difference exactly where it exists and leave the rest general. Imam Shurunbulali (Allah have mercy on him) marks her difference in the sitting, that she rests on her hip (tawarruk), then describes the tashahhud and the pointing without singling her out [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah 1:108]. Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him) counts twenty-five points of difference between a woman and a man, and he explains the ones he names by a single concern, that they conceal her better [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar 1:504]. A raised finger changes nothing about how covered you are, so that reason does not reach it.

When you reach the testification of faith in the tashahhud, raise the index finger of your right hand as you say la ilaha, and lower it as you say illa Llah. The hand rests on your thigh before and after. Do this in both sittings: the first and the final. Hanafis differ on some details of the hand, and this is what the school settled on. Whichever detail is followed, women and men follow it alike.

Since the pointing is a sunna, your prayer is complete without it, and the forgetfulness prostration (sujud al-sahw) is only for leaving out an obligation [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah 1:178]. If you have been leaving it out, take it up from your next prayer, and you owe nothing for the prayers behind you. It is a sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), and it is yours exactly as it is his.

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

• What Are the Differences between Men and Women in Prayer? (Hanafi) — The differences relate to optimality and not validity, set out for the standing, the bowing, the prostration, and the sitting.
• How Should a Woman Sit and Prostrate in Prayer? — Why a woman’s prayer follows the same rulings as a man’s, with each difference returning to what conceals her better.
• Do I Need to Perform Sajdat al-Sahw If I Don’t Raise a Finger in Tashahhud? — Why no forgetfulness prostration is owed for leaving out a sunna.